ISLAM AND PEACEMAKING IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Abdul Aziz Said
Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace
Director, Center for Global Peace
School of International Service
American University
Keynote Address for USAID Ramadan Iftar
September 16, 2008
Salamun Alaykum (May peace abide with you). On the blessed time of Ramadan:
Let us remember
the children, women and men everywhere
who live with injustice, violence and poverty
as their constant companions.
Let us honor our humanity
and ourselves
Let us celebrate all the people
who spend their lives
helping to make the world
a community of justice and peace.
Distinguished audience, peace and Islam are not strangers. One of the key problems in discussions of Islam and
peace is exceptionalism: the belief that Islam is profoundly different from other religions, and stands outside the
Judeo-Christian heritage. Here in the West, we have constructed a notion of Islam as “the other” – as a reality that
exists in contrast to and against Western values. We need to challenge this notion of exceptionalism, without
denying the particularity and specificity of the Islamic experience.
Islam shares a great deal in common with its sister Abrahamic faiths, Judaism and Christianity and Western
civilization, to which it has made vital historical contributions. Like Christianity, Judaism, and the religions of the
East, Islam is rich with precepts and traditions that support peacemaking. And like the followers of other
religions, Muslims have often failed to live up to these precepts and traditions.
Good people, peace and Islam have a long history together. In its purest form, Islam is a Fatwa (command) of peace.
The Qur’an mandates “peace is a word from a merciful God.” For a devout Muslim, Islam is peace. Though this
perception contrasts sharply with commonplace non-Muslim impressions, it is rooted in Islamic theology. In the
Qur’an Al-Salam, which means peace, is one of the most beautiful names of (Allah), the Arabic word for God. Allah
is also used by Christian Arabs in their prayer. It is the same God.
The yearning for peace derives from the innermost nature, or fitra, of humankind. The Qur’an affirms a positive
view of human nature.
This characterization of Islamic values is likely to appear unfamiliar to many non-Muslims, who are much more
familiar with militant calls for jihad, a word that has frequently been translated as “holy war.” Jihad is much more
than armed struggle against an enemy from the outside. The more important jihad is the struggle within the soul of
Muslims for spiritual purification. Abuses notwithstanding, there is a clearly articulated preference in Islamic
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social ethics for nonviolence over violence, and for forgiveness (‘afu) over retribution. The Qur’an discourages
unnecessary conflict, and condemns fitna, the bringing of destruction, oppression, and violence.
In traditional Islamic societies, the ideal of a harmonious social order was closely associated with the
prescriptions of shari‘a, (Islamic normative and legal teachings). The objectives of shari‘a are closely related to
those of religious law in the Biblical tradition: the maintenance of proper, just relationships between the individual
and God, within the family and community, among Muslims, between religious groups, and ultimately between
humanity and other created things.
Dear people, together we can make peace. Leaders on both sides of the Islamic-Western divide have much to gain
from moving beyond preoccupation with symbols, toward genuine openness to a new experience of the “other.”
Only active engagement through sustained dialogue can help us to transcend the fear and anger that produces
conflict escalation, and discover the common humanity that these emotions conceal. And we are only likely to
commit ourselves to such dialogue if we can begin to narrate a new story, a story about complementarity instead of
the dominant story about confrontation.
Active engagement permits us to understand and recognize the authentic expressions of human religiosity, and
protects us from the politics of manipulated symbolism. Active engagement is needed to move beyond negative
reactions to discover human commonality, shared experiences, and compatible aspirations.
Muslims and Westerners need to experience themselves “in relationship” rather than “out of relationship.”
They have an opportunity to find meaning in the common tragedy of their estrangement as well as in the possibility
of reconciliation.
Establishing peace in the present climate of mutual recrimination will not be easy. Peacemaking, in contrast to warmaking, is proactive and requires deliberate efforts to move: from the superficial to the essential, from morbidity to
creativity, from defensiveness to openness, and from the politics of fear and projection to a politics of hope.
The fact that the “war on terror” framework for responding to our present insecurity has increasingly become the
subject of constant debate suggests a need for a new strategic doctrine. Using the “war on terror” concept to justify
actual wars has undermined genuine efforts to promote international security. By avoiding pessimistic
oversimplifications and slogans (for example, a “long war against Islamofascism”), leaders in the West as well as in
the Islamic world can set the stage for effective responses to current insecurities.
Friends, it’s true, the new story of complementarity exists only in the form of a working outline, and can begin
with the simplest of acknowledgements: Islam and the West are “stuck” with each other, and have no choice but
to learn to coexist. Both are here to stay, prosper and learn from one another. The dignity and security of one is
connected to the dignity and security of the other. We can become coauthors of this new story.
We are all heirs of the story of confrontation. When we leave aside symbols and seek to know one another, we can
become architects of a humane global order based on solidarity. It involves the head and the heart.
Muhiyuddin Ibn Arabi, the 12th century Muslim reminds us,
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles,
and a convent for Christian monks, a temple for idols
and the pilgrim’s Ka’ba;
the tables of the Tora and the book of the Koran.
Love is my religion and my faith.
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Let us spread peace. The whole world needs the whole world.
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